Processes of the afore-described kind and also the corresponding test stands are sufficiently well known. Particularly well known are processes and devices for testing driving axles for trucks, to which the present invention is primarily to be applied. However, the features of the process and the device can also be applied without any further ado to other driving axles, wherein for instance only one single axle shaft is provided, which optionally can be directly driven or whose axle transmission does not have a differential.
The known processes and devices for the testing of driving axles have the disadvantage that the testing is done under conditions which do not match the conditions under which the vehicle will later operate at all or are only able to match them to a limited extent. So, for instance, the axle housing is securely mounted in a frame, while the driven sides of the axle shafts are connected in a wheel mounting with a rotatable part, which is either directly braked or in turn drives a generator, which this way converts the energy transmitted by the axle shaft into electric current and also exerts a braking effect on the shaft, so that the entire axle is loaded with respect to its main function, namely the shifting and transmission of torque.
But later, during its operation, for instance of a driving axle mounted in a truck, conditions arise which cannot be duplicated with the state of the art testing processes and the state of the art testing devices. Instead, in addition to the described purely functional test, further testing of the axle with other test stands and other test methods has to be done, wherein the axle is loaded statically and dynamically, but wherein it can not be rotationally driven. As a result, several tests have to be performed on the axle in succession and these tests actually furnish results of little value.
Finally, further complicated testing has to be done under traffic conditions, i.e. with a driving axle mounted in a vehicle or another device, which are correspondingly time-consuming and costly.